A living will document should be prepared if you want your health care wishes taken care of in case you become terminally ill or incapacitated due to an injury or an illness. A living will sets guidelines you want your family and health care providers to follow in what life sustaining medical treatments you want to continue to use. A living will specify the medical care you do or do not want if you become incapacitated.
Preparing your own Living Will Forms will you save time and money allow you to make decisions about your health care in advance if you are unable to do so later in the event of a incapacitating illness or injury. A living will states your decision on specified medical procedures and on whether or not to be kept on artificial life support.
Why You Need A Living Will
A living will reduces ambiguity on the use of life extending procedures needed to extend your life. Anyone over 18 should think about preparing a living will. A living will should also be prepared if you are in declining health.
Living Will Forms Have Two Main Purposes
First, to make your wishes known to your family and doctors who are taking care of you in cases of persistent unconsciousness or a terminal illness and are mentally unable to make health care decisions on your own. A living will empower you to direct your physician to either maintain life support systems or to remove all life support systems that keep you artificially alive in the event you become incapacitated.
And secondly, to designate an individual to act on your behalf in cases where you have become mentally incapacitated or are otherwise unable to communicate your decisions regarding health care matters. For this you may need a durable power of attorney (P.O.A.) which authorizes one person to act on behalf of the individual granting the durable P.O.A. to make financial and/or medical decisions on the individual’s behalf should the individual become incapacitated.
Your Rights With a Living Will Document
You have the right to make decisions with a living will form as to whether or not you would like to decline life support if you become incapacitated. Today, life support systems can keep an individual’s body alive for years, even if the brain is no longer functioning.
Living Will Legal Forms only become effective when you become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions on your own about your medical care.
What Makes A Living Will Legitimate
A living will is valid when state requirements are met regarding notarization or witnesses. The document goes into effect accoding to the stipulations in the document either immediately or when the person becomes incapacitated.
What Will Happen if You Do Not Have a Living Will Document
If you become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions about your medical care, someone else must decide for you and they make a choice you would not want.
If you do not have a living will form prepared, your family is burdened with the decision and members of your family may not agree as to what action to take. The lack of decision by your family may lengthen your suffering and result in an increase in your medical bills. Preparing your own living will form will remove the decision from your family and makes the decision yours.
